Who Is God? Part 2

How Near or Far is God?

Immanence — God’s nearness

The Bible quotes God as saying that He fills heaven and earth or as other translations put it, he is everywhere.

"Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:24 NASB)

In Hebrew that phrase refers to filling everything. This is called God’s omnipresence, and is not the same as panentheism, which tends to blur the distinction between the creation and God. Luke expressed this idea another way, saying that he is not far from every one of us.

His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ (Acts 17:27-28 NLT)

We live in God. We only exist, and move in God. He is as near as a heartbeat. God can also make himself known to human beings through a special appearance, called a theophany. Moses saw the burning bush.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. (Exodus 3:1-2 NKJV)

The people of the Exodus saw God’s presence in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. (Exodus 13:21-22 NIV)

On Mount Sinai God’s immanence was evident in thunder and lightning.

… All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently… (Exodus 19:16-25 NLT)

Jesus was called Immanuel.

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matthew 1:23 KJV)

Emmanuel (from the Greek ?µµa?????) or Immanuel (from the Hebrew ???????????) means “God with us.” One of the most important ways that humanity experiences the immanence of God is in Jesus Christ. We also experience the immanence of God in the Holy Spirit.

While everyone else was being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. Then as he prayed, the sky opened up, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove. A voice from heaven said, “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.” (Luke 3:21-22 CEV)

Transcendence — God’s Supremacy

God declared through the prophet Isaiah that His thoughts and ours are far apart.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8 NIV)

God is high and lifted up, exalted above us, as Isaiah described what he saw in a vision.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” ... (Isaiah 6:1-5 ESV)

The Psalmist asks the rhetorical question, who is like the Lord.

Who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth. (Psalm 113:5-6 NLT)

The obvious answer to the question, who is like the Lord our God, is “Nobody!” Yet, does not all creation reveal enough about Him to make those guilty who ignore the obvious forensic evidence for His existence?

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20 NASB)